The county of Eaton, Michigan : topography, history, art folio and directory of freeholders / Bullock, Taggart & Morrell, topographers and publishers.

.. 71
view of their importance. Modern about 1846, and for years was patiently at its base he named Kedron, but the school to be ta
S methods in music select the few who prosecuted by Mr. Johnson alone. I new name has never supplanted the ly secured aft
| I may have special talent, and pass by remember of his starting to slide off former one of Indian Creek. The Olivet and often, th
] the many of average musical ability, the roof while shingling, and as hlie got Colony, after a ten days' journey, board went f
V with the result, that we have a few to the eaves and was about shooting arrived at their future home Saturday, ments of the t<
' cultured singers, while the art that over, there happened to be a solitary February 24 184. Dwelling houses "Methods of
S most of all adds to the home and to the staging pole about four feet away, were built, and land cleared, and soon of necessity, e
S social and religious gatherings is closed against which he fortunately placed buildings for the college were corn-. own. As a ru
S to the many. A revival of popular in- one foot and stopped his progcress, pleted. Father Shipard fell a victim to itive. One or
struction in music would be a blessing. When Printer Johnson suspended his deadly malaria at the beginning of the none had glo
SA history of education in Eaton Bugle and went back to Ohio to reside, enterprise, but the colony did not My first attam, county should not fail to mention the the academy enterprise languished, the despair. The first distinctively college arn of exam
Lyceum and Debating societies which, subscription got cold, and Nathan building was burned before fully coin- uniform stand
in many parts of the county, played no found academy building up hill work, pleted, but faith was not exhausted, single examin
insignificant part in the training of much more so than sliding down that In 1845 the legislature chartered Olivet consternation
young men in extemporaneous speak- roof. Just then paople commenced Institute which continued until 1859,. rons and teach
ing. In some districts these clubs were finding fault because he was so slow in when a college charter was obtained, tion did not p
maintained winter after winter with finishing the academy. I have a recol- In 1894 Olivet College celebrated her. to teach half
Sno less of interest and zeal. The lection ofgoing down to that building fiftiethanniversary. Darin the half holding priv
school house was the place of meeting one cold forenoon during the winter of century, the value of her equipmnnt granting deser
and was often packed to its utmost, 1848 and 1849, after it was roofed and had grown fron nothing to $175,00). certificates all
sleigh loads of visitors from adjacent sided up. I remember of climbing in, 10,030 young m(an and wo:an hav re- first summer,
districts often helping to swell the with no plank to walk upon, and of see- ceived instruction, and 380 had been tied down to p
u thron, ing windows boarded up with.long graduated. OlivetCollege ranksamng been badly dis
The questions debated did not vary boards to save spoiling the lumber, the best educational institutions of the very unpopula
much from year to year, and every Joists, sleepers and studling were all west, and is a source of pride to the "By fall the
winter the pros and cons of capital pun- bare. Therewere just boards enough citizens of Eton county. result of work
ishment, and the relative greatness of for the work bench to stand upon in For a quarter of a century theschoos ers, and each
sword and pen were rested. The argu- the middle of the lower room. All was of Eaton County increased more in gave better res
ments of the veterans in debate came silent save a long shaven hitched to a number than in efficiency. The wages was too short
to be well known, yet seldom were sliver by the side of a crevice, stream- paid offered no inducement for young very great i
tiresome, while each winter brought ing and fluttering in the wind. There, men and women to educate themselves persistently to
out some young knight ambitious to all alone, sat the academy builder, for the profession of teaching. School and a few othc
win his spurs in this verbal tourna- Johnson, upon the work bench beside aparatus was limited to an ill-assorted able to accomi
ment. These societies served a good his empty nail box, his coat on and lot of books in the hands of pupils, a tion. During
purpose. They developed social and buttoned up to the chin, his purple square yard of blackboard, made of I developed n'
intellectual life, and some of the most hand clinging to the handle of his ham- matched lumber, cubes of chalk an inch standard of tc
popular orators of E.tlon county began mer. I couldn't see much sunshine in square, purchased in many instances marked impro
their carreer as speakers in the debat- his countenance, and am sorry to say by the children who used them, and That seemed t
ing societies. he found some fault because they were erasers made by covering one side of a was a necess
It has been a matter of congratulation so slow in paying up their subscrip- block of wood with sheepskin with the improvements
and pride to the citizens of Eaton tions. He had been dunning away at wool on. Occasionally charts illustrat- which would i
county that almost from the earliest them for weeks without raising a dol- ing penmanship adorned the walls, but The work so
settlement there have been within her lar. 'Not a board,' said he, 'not a nail, were never used. The branches taught Hooker, was c
borders institutions that afforded opper- not a sash nor a pane of glass, and were, reading, writing, spelling, arith- ors, Saperinter
tunities for at least academic education, those d-d fools all the while grumb- metic and geography, and commonly and Shoop; bu
The colony which settled Vermont- ling because I don't finish off this acad- grammar;occasionally a class in alge- ular througho
ville,: before leaving Vermont, had emy!" This was Wooden Johnson. bra would be found. History,-physiol- eight years of
drawn up articles of agreement stating Printer Johnson, the instigator of what ogy and civil government were practi- - In place of a
the purposes for which they were seek- led to this, had deserted us and gone cally unknown. Grammar was largely there was elec
ing homes in the West. The sixth arti- back to Ohio. a giCls study, for they could attend each township
ole reads: " And we do also agree that Somewhere about 1850 the academy school during the summer, while the disappeared no
for the benefit of our children and the was finished; by what means I never boys, who, after the age of twelve, by county so'
S rising generation, we will endeavor as learned. Several professors were at were kept at home to work, devoted undone. The
far as possible, to carry with us and different times inveigled in there to the three or four months of the winter supervision m
perpetuate among us the same. literary teach, but found it up hilt work in col- term to the three R's. fact that in 18
privileges that we enjoy here." Amid lecting their tuition. Professor Wal- Until 1867 the licensing of teachers the county h
all the hardships of pioneer life, they lace stood it as long as he could and wxas done by a township board, consist- study, but nin
ceased not to remember the vow made. then went to railroading it out West ing of the township board and two there were on]

lught. jThey were usual- in Michigan have better educational t
mr the school was secured opportunities than the youth of Eaton
e wishes of the school County. Her district schools are as "
arther than the attain- good as any. From them it is but a
eacher.. step to excellent high schools,and when \
teaching were individual, the high school is completed a college \
*ach teacher having his stands prepared to give the higher edle they were very prim- ucation.
two schools had maps, It is safe to say that no c)-:nty in
bes or other apparatus. Michigan of the population an age of
pt was to raise the stand- Eaton has had such large influence in
inations. Manifestly a the educational affairs of the state.
lard was the result of a Her teachers have achieved distinction.
Ler, but the result was Miss King, Superintendent of Charlotte
upon the part of the pat- schools from 1877 to 1881, is Professor
lers. The first examina- of history in the Michigan Normal
)roduce teachers enough schools; Miss Jones, Superintendent
of the schools, but by 1881. to 1838, is Professor of English
ate examinations, and Literature in the State Normal schools
'~tionary and short term of Kansas; Mr. Hammond, Superinwere provided for the tendent from 1888 to 1893, is a member
ird the community set- of the State Board of Education.,ace and quiet. It had Eaton Rapids has been hardly less
turbedand the office was hbnored than Charlotte. Mr. Briggs,
r..Mr. Schunrtz, and Mr. Evans have all
examination showed the been called higher, and today hold reon the part of the teach- sponsible positions, as Superintendent
succeeding examination of Coldwater schools, Principal of the
suits, though two years West Side IHigh school, Grand Rapids,
a time to accomplish a and Superintendent of Jackson schools,
mprovement. I worked respectively.
Sintroduce maps, globes For twelve of the last thirty years
~r things but I was not Olivet College has furnished the state
)lish much in this direc- the Superintendent of Public Instructhe two years I held it, tion, Prof. Hosford holding the posiy energies to raising the tion for eight years, from '61 to '72 and
~auhers, and felt that a Prof. Estabrook four years, from '86 to
vement was discernable. 90. Mr. Schurtz, while Secretary of
o me' the first step, and School in Eaton, was nominated by the
ary foundation for other republicans for the office of Superinin methods of instraction tendent of Public Instruction, but a
nevitably follow. " political reverse lost the state to that
) well inaugurated by Mr. party.
arried on by his success- With honest pride the citizens of this
adents, Townseni, Evans county can look back over a third of a
t the office was unpop- century and contemplate the material
)'t the state, and. after progress that has been made, and with
trial it was abolished, even greater pride may they view tihe
County Superintendent,- social, religious and educational ad-.....
ted a superintendent for vancement that have come with the.. Unity of plan at once years.
id the work accomplished TABLE I. DATE OF TIEC aRmSTr TEImM OF
pervision was gradually sCoooL IN TIlL YAliOUS TOWNSiiIPS.
ntter failure of township Bellevue.................................... 1836
ay be judged from the Hamlin........................1837
80 only fifteen schools in Eaton Rapids..............................1837
ad prescribed courses of Vermontville...................1838
eteen were classified, and Eaton..........................................1839
ly ten that did not change W alton.........................................1839

S in far off Vermont, and in 1813 began and got killed. Professor Loring and school inspectors. The board elected teachers durin
to carry it into effect by organizing his wife taught a few pupils, and one of its members "'visitor," whose A demand fc
the Vermontville Academical Assoeia- boarded themselves frugally in a. small duty it was to visit each school in the 1881, to the cr
tion, which was incorporated in 1843 room upstairs in the academy, until township at least once a term, to exam- Board of Scho
Swith nine trustees and a capital stock they starved out and went to farming ine into the work of the teacher, and posed of three
10,oo000. A building was erected before over in Eaton, where the Professor to test results by examining the pupils, was toexamin
the incorporation of the Association, soon died. Professor Ingham, who If capable men should chance to be the secretary
and in the winter of '44 and '45 the seemed expressly constituted for such chosen, such a system would have schools when
academy was opened with 11ev. W. U. usage, browsed in this field of thorns yielded fair results, Lut too frequently J. Estabrook,
Benedict, the pastor of the Congrega- and thistles until the oroganization of such was not the case. Loose examin- Kittridge wer
Benedict, sthel pastorhofa thearyC C
tional church, as teacher. The higher the Union school gave hima salary. He ations were supervisioned, and un- board. From
English branches and Latin were subsequently became a newspaper edi- progressive schools were the net schools have
taught. The academy building still tor in Nebraska. product. Nor does this statement im- the law of 188!
stands, serving as chapel to the Con- What dividends the stockholders re- peach the general intelligence and board was to g
gregational church. ceived upon their subscriptions I have faithfulness of the officersof thatday. supervision \i
j The academy was a beacon light of never learned. The stock was cheaply It impimplymplies that a man who. oc- Secretary of S
learning in the newland and attracked bought up by the few. The old acad- casionally interests himself in educa- fortune of Eat
to itself students from not only the emy has been sold and moved upon a tional affairs, and whose wholethought secretary Mr.
immediate vicinity, but from even re- front lot, and is now turned into is given to other lines, cannot in the ficiency and z
moter p'a-es. For twenty years or the Peninsular Hotel. The entire very nature of the case do efficient ond to none in
more, the academy was sustained, but ground has been cut up into city lots,. work in school supervision, which re- Schurtzresign
Sas colleges sprung up in southern Mich- and the academy is prjbably finished, quires technical knowledge.. tant position i
ig-an, and union schools were organ- The Vermontville Academy was just In 1867 the law creating the office of Rapids, and w
ized in every considerable village, the opening when a company of thirty- County Superintendent of Schools went Wagner, the
demand for it ceased and in the later eight persons, with goods in wagons into force and F. A. Hooker, a young who had been
Msixties it was merged into the Vermont drawn by ox teams, driving their flocks lawyer, now a member of the Supreme ining Board si
ville Union Schools. and herds before them, left Oberlin, bench of Michigan, was elected Super- the supervisi
But it had not lived in vain. It left Ohio, for Olivet, Michigan, The town intendent. In reply to a question con- schools have 1
cernin1,ttheaonditioniofdhenschools atgreefiv1..I
an enduring impress upon Vermont- existed only in name. cerning the condition of the schools at gressive. In 1
ville. society and its influence was wide A few months previous, Rev. John the passage of the law and the work ficer was chan
spread and gave vitality to the lives of Shipard, the founder of Oberlin College, accomplished by him, IMr. Hooker tary to Commi
vmsmtedantheavGrandlRivero valleys Mm hm-I wittes:
many who are filling responsible post- visited the Grand River valley, Michi- writes When Mr.
tlions with ability that only thorough gan, to look after some land belonging "The law of 1867 providingforcounty Superintenden
Straining can give. to the Oberlin College. He had already superintendents of schools was a radi- village and cit
Wiilliam Johnson established a high determined to found a Christian college cal departure from existing conditions, tion, and st
school in Charlotte in 1845 or 1846, and in Michigan, but had not decided upon Three school inspectors had previously marked their
was himself the teacher. Mr. Foot a location. He chanced to visit the granted certificates and established and day. Gradual]
writes of the institution and its asso- present site of Olivet, and becoming altered the boundaries of districts. So ing, graded cc
ciations as follows: lost in the dense oak under brush which far as I discovered they seldom did to-day every v
"From this germ of a school finally then covered the spot, stopped at a set- more, though occasionally a man would following a de
sprouted and took root the ambitious tier's home and was entertained over be found among them who visited.From an accom
S project of organizing a joint stock corn- night. Receiving directions, he re- schools. This, if I am not mistaken, learned in w
pany and incorporating the Charlotte sumed his journey in the morning, but, was without compensation. The qual- schools began
academy. Notonly here, but in all of to his surprise, sood foand himself at ifications necessary to obtaina certifi- the number g
the adjoining townships, stock was lib- the same spot where he became lost the cate differed in the various localities. fifteen years t
erally subscribed. Mr. McComb, a night before. Again he started, and In the villages an1d I re advanced have ranked a
land owner, donated the academy again after endeavoring to pick his way t)wnships they were mjre than in state, and the
ground and a bell. Mr. Nathan A. throughl the heavy underwood, he came others. In the townships, especially school are acec
Johnson was the fortunate bidder who upon the same emminence. He decided the newer ones, when log school houses versity for a
got the job of putting up this academy, that this spot should be the site of his abounded, the granting of certificates Rapids schoc
and of collecting the subscription for proposed college. The hill he called was largely a matter of expediency, university dim
his pay. The work% was commenced Olivet and timelittle brook which flowed and depended on the eharacter of the for all courses

g the year. Chester................................... 1839:r better schools led, in Oneida......................................... 1839
cation of a County Board Kalamo........................ "1840
ol Examiners, to be com - Delta...........................................1841
members, whose duty it Charlotte...................................... 1841
ie and license candidates; Roxand........................................ 1841
of the board should visit Brookfeld..................................... 1841
occasion demanded. Prof. Carmel.........................................1841
J. L. W agner, and K. Sufineld.......................................1842
i members of the first Benton..........................................1843
that day to this the Windsor.................................. 1823
Yradually improved. By NOTE: The dates for Oneida, Windsor and
Walton are not certain.
9, the secretary of the
TABLE Ii. SCHOOL POPULATION BY DEyive his whole time to
ith the title of County 1844.......... CADES.. *459
chools. It was the good 1844........................................ *459
on County o have fo1855............................................. 4,670,on County to have for 184,1
Orr S hurtz W hose 1864............................................ -61314
Or Schurtz, xvhose of-al made her schools see- 1874.......................... 780
i the state. In 1891 Mr. 18S4..................................... 9,351
S189 J4.............................................9,207
ied to accept an impor-,. ^
ed o accept an impor-.*School age in 1844 between five and seven-.[n the schools of Grand teen. Other dates between five and twenty.
as succeeded by J. L. TABLE II. MISCEm.ANEOUS SCHOOL
present commissioner, STATISTICS FOR 1893.
a member of the Exam- Children between 5 and 23............ 9,142
nee its creation. Under Value of Scnool Property.........,$201,043
on of Mr. Wagner the Male Teachers..............................78
been efficient and pro- Female Teachers.........................280.891 the name of the of- Total Number of Teachers............. 358
ged from County Secre- Wages Paid Male Teachers.... $16,460.66.ssioner of Schools.. Wages Paid Female Teachers $40,878.81
Hooker became County Total Wages Paid................ 57,339.47
it in 1867 he found the Primary School Fund............ $13,973.22
y schools in good condi- Total Expenditures..................81,783.34
ýeady improvement has No. School Districts................148.
history to the present No. ChildrenAttending.................7,452
ly, the larger places lead- Teachers required for Graded Schools 66
)urses were adopted and Ungraded....................................... 138
Tillage and city school is Average Price per Month (male)..$43.09
ýfinite course of study. Female...................................$... 29.93
mpanying table it will be School House Material (brick).........45
that year the various Frame.........................................113
to graduate classes and NOTE: The last log school house ceased to,,,, - -be used in "1886.
maduated from each. For beused in 1886.
he schools of Charlotte GradSchools' No. Graduates
Schools. fi rst
mong the finest in thel ________lass Male Females.
diplomas from the high Be 19
epted by the State Uni- Charlotte 1871 76 136
Dil courses. The Eaton Dmondale. 1893 4 10
Eaton Rapids....... 1876 50 87
ols are also upon the Grand Ledge No 11 1886 14 16
Grand Ledge No. 9 1893 6
ploma list, though not Olivet... 1893 5 5
The yo-uth of no county PotlervilIc...... 1891 6. The yoth of Vermontville....... 1889 17 32